The observing schedule for May - July 2019 can be found here.

Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory presents Science Saturdays! Activities are FREE and fun for all ages! They are offered the first Saturday of each month at the FLWO Visitor & Science Center. Next Science Saturday will be offered April 6, 2019 from 9am - 1pm for an early Earth Day Celebration! Learn how plants grow in space and plant your very own seed! Check out their upcoming events or visit their Facebook page for more information.

Due to road construction on Mt. Hopkins Road, tours at the Observatory will resume May 8th, 2019. When operating, tours are offered on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and require advance reservations. In the meantime, check out FLWO Science Saturdays

In January 1969, astronomers at Steward Observatory were the first to detect the optical flash from a pulsar, observing the Crab pulsar with a photon-counting detector. In January 2019, near the 50th anniversary of this discovery, Steward astronomers, testing a new high-speed imaging camera at the MMT, observed the Crab pulsar, taking images 194 times per second. This video shows the flash in visible light of the Crab Nebula pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star that is the collapsed remnant of a supernova. This video shows the pulsar additionally processed.

We're very excited to announce the MMT Observatory's 40th Anniversary Symposium and Celebration to be held May 14-16, 2019 in Tucson. Please consider joining us! More information can be found here.